Practice Changes Brain Activity in Specific Ways
Author Information
Author(s): van Raalten Tamar R., Ramsey Nick F., Duyn Jeff, Jansma Johan M.
Primary Institution: University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Hypothesis
The course of activity decreases in brain areas associated with working memory function is the same for encoding and response selection.
Conclusion
Practice in a cognitive task primarily increases efficiency of encoding in the brain, while changes in response selection occur later.
Supporting Evidence
- Practice led to significant improvements in task performance over all runs.
- Brain activity associated with encoding decreased after the first run of practice.
- Changes in response selection activity were observed only after the third run of practice.
Takeaway
When you practice something, your brain gets better at it by using less energy for remembering things, but it takes longer for it to get better at deciding what to do.
Methodology
The study used a variant of a Sternberg task with optimized separation of activity associated with encoding and response selection, measuring brain activity over six consecutive runs of practice.
Limitations
The design may have prevented continuous rehearsal of the practiced memory set, potentially slowing the effect of practice on brain function.
Participant Demographics
Eleven right-handed subjects (6 males, 5 females) with a mean age of 33.0 years.
Statistical Information
P-Value
p<0.01
Statistical Significance
p<0.01
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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